


Starving Rats Will Eat Poison

by coldrottingtrees



Category: No. 6 (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-01
Updated: 2014-05-01
Packaged: 2018-01-21 13:55:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1552865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coldrottingtrees/pseuds/coldrottingtrees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shion learns things about Nezumi that Nezumi never wanted him to know. </p><p>Inspired in part by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagema">kagema</a> and the tendency in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki#History_of_kabuki">early Kabuki</a> for the actors to also be available as prostitutes. </p><p>Just something short I wrote a few months ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starving Rats Will Eat Poison

Shion clutched a small bouquet of flowers in trembling hands as he made his way into the theatre hall. Despite Nezumi’s stern refusal to allow Shion to attend his shows, Shion had decided there couldn’t be anything wrong with coming to see him after the shows had ended.

Right?

He scanned the lingering clusters of people, trying to spot Nezumi, but was having no luck. He made his way to someone who looked “official.”

“Excuse me,” he said. “Do you know where… ‘Eve’ is?”

The man looked Shion up and down and then laughed. “Sure, I know where Eve is,” he said with a leer. “But I doubt you can afford her, lover boy.”

“Eh?” Shion blushed, flustered. “No, I… I’m a friend… I just… can you just tell me where Eve is, please?”

The man pointed to a door across the lobby. “Go through there and look for a door with a ‘Dressing Room’ sign. I’m pretty sure he’s all wrapped up for the night so he’ll probably be in there.”

“Thank you,” Shion said, giving the man a quick polite bow before hurrying away. Something about him made Shion uncomfortable.

 

* * *

 

Shion found the dressing room and hesitated at the door, nervous about whether or not Nezumi would be angry to see him here.  He clutched his flowers tighter, steeled his nerves, and knocked on the door.

“Go the fuck away,” Nezumi shouted angrily.

Shion flinched.

“I said I'm done for the night!”

“Um…” Shion hummed anxiously, shifting from one foot to the other. “Nezumi?” he called. “It’s me, Shion? Can I come in?”

There was a long pause, and Shion sweated, worried that he’d really made Nezumi angry by coming here against his wishes.

Then the door suddenly opened, and Nezumi loomed in the doorway, staring at Shion.

“What’re you doing here?” he said, but his voice wasn’t angry the way Shion had feared it would be. It was something else, and Shion wasn’t even sure what it was.

Nezumi was still in his Eve clothes, hair long and loose at his shoulders, but his makeup was ruined. The eyeliner was a wreck and his lipstick was smeared roughly. Most unsettlingly, only one of his cheeks was red - not blush, the fading remnant of a strike across the face.

“What is this?” Nezumi laughed, putting on a show of his normal mocking demeanor. He reached out and snatched the flowers away from Shion. “Flowers? You’re such a girl sometimes, Shion.”

Nezumi turned and walked back into the dressing room, taking the flowers and putting them on the makeup table. Shion followed him in, and shut the door behind him.

“Are you okay?” Shion asked quietly.

Nezumi looked back at Shion, that look in his eyes that Shion couldn’t be sure of again. It wasn’t just sadness. It almost seemed like Nezumi was ashamed.

“I told you not to come here,” Nezumi said.

“Did someone hurt you?” Shion asked, stepping closer.

Nezumi turned away, and went to sit at the makeup table.

“We don’t make a lot of money, you know? Actors…” Nezumi said, looking up at Shion. “This is just the way it is, the way it’s been for a long time. A lot of the actors do it. I didn’t want you to know that this is the sort of person I am.”

Nezumi chuckled to himself. “I remember how angry you got at Rikiga. I thought it was funny, someone thinking I’m… too good… for that kind of thing.”

Shion’s fists clenched.

"I hate it. I've always hated it." Nezumi ducked his head, pushing his fingers up into his hair. "...I hate it even more now," he said, his eyes lingering on the flowers beside him.

"I'm trash, I've always been trash," he said, his voice weak and thin. It sounded like an apology. "I don't know why you don't see it."

Shion reached out and lifted Nezumi's face to look at him. With his thumb, he carefully wiped away the smudged lipstick, and then, Nezumi 's face cupped in both hands, gave the red mark on his cheek a soft kiss.

Nezumi stared, bewildered, as Shion pulled back to look him in the eyes.

"Whoever made you feel this way, I'll murder them," Shion said, in that soft, gentle voice of his that made fierce words even more unsettling.

“Shion…”

“You’re mine,” Shion smiled. “No one can touch Nezumi but me.”

“Idiot,” Nezumi scoffed, giving Shion a light whack upside the head.

But Shion saw the smile at the corner of his lips.

 

 


End file.
